Tobacco advertising ban 'will significantly improve Cambodian health outcomes' [-Don't tell Hun Xen that!]

13/09/2010
VSO International

Moves to ban tobacco advertising in Cambodia would be a major step forward in improving the health of the country's residents.

So claims Mom Kong, executive director of non-government organisation the Cambodia Movement for Health, who states that plans by the government to introduce regulations against all tobacco-related advertising and promotions next year will play a crucial role in stopping would-be smokers from developing the habit.

"Tobacco advertising helps to attract children to smoking and makes it difficult for smokers to quit. Banning advertising would be an effective measure to prevent youth and children from smoking," he tells Inter Press Service.

Doing so would see the Cambodian government meet a key element of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which requires all governments signing up to the treaty to "undertake a comprehensive ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship" within five years.

The news provider points to World Health Organization figures showing 49 per cent of Cambodian males over the age of 15 smoke, compared to 44 per cent in Thailand.

Earlier this month, Ou Kevanna, manager of the National Nutrition Programme at the Health Ministry’s National Maternal and Child Health Centre, claimed that there will always be a difference in the health of rich and poor people in the country, as the latter are unable to make it to hospitals with modern medical equipment.

Experts call for South-East Asian indoor smoking ban [-Hun Sen wouldn't allow such ban in Cambodia]

Chain-smoking Hun Sen (Photo: AP)

Wed, 04 Jul 2007
DPA

Bangkok - Anti-tobacco lobbyists called Wednesday on the governments of South-East Asia - home to 10 per cent of the world's 1.25 billion cigarette smokers - to ban smoking in all indoor workplaces. The South-East Asia Tobacco Control Alliance used an international conference in Bangkok of members to the UN Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to urge the governments of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to ban smoking in the workplace.

"In this group of 10 countries, 1 million people die from smoking-related diseases every year," alliance coordinator Bungon Ritthiphakdee told the conference, referring to ASEAN members Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Nations attending the Bangkok conference on Tuesday unanimously endorsed a global health standard urging governments to adopt laws requiring smoke-free workplaces and public places.

The proposal was expected to be officially approved by the full conference before it concludes Friday.

Once adopted, member governments would be urged to pass laws banning smoking in the workplace.

The conference is also mulling new treaties that would tighten rules on the illicit trade in tobacco products and ban intra-regional advertisements of cigarettes.